After Pat’s Birthday
By Kevin Tillman
Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document. Posted on Oct 19, 2006
It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after.
It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we
joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the
papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American
leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a
direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave
us without a voice… until we get out.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat
to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was
involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium
from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be
liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an
insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil
war even though it is. Something like that.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it
is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and
humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly
kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not
charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that
overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the
military.
Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a
five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send
it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an
extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or
fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a
faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad
in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle
50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the
seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal
invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people
and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage,
virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are
allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is
tolerated.
Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is
tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country
safe.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.
Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.
Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it
is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world
has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and
distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been
replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous,
malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated.
Somehow nobody is accountable for this.
In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people.
So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as
traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely,
they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity
and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked,
unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice.
People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman
Copyright © 2006 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/
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